Reading: The Confluence of Vision and Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason D. Yeatman ◽  
Alex L. White
Keyword(s):  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Control Object ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Artificial Stimulus ◽  
Rich History

The scientific study of reading has a rich history that spans disciplines from vision science to linguistics, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neurology, and education. The study of reading can elucidate important general mechanisms in spatial vision, attentional control, object recognition, and perceptual learning, as well as the principles of plasticity and cortical topography. However, literacy also prompts the development of specific neural circuits to process a unique and artificial stimulus. In this review, we describe the sequence of operations that transforms visual features into language, how the key neural circuits are sculpted by experience during development, and what goes awry in children for whom learning to read is a struggle. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Aging of the Retina: Molecular and Metabolic Turbulences and Potential Interventions

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Campello ◽  
Nivedita Singh ◽  
Jayshree Advani ◽  
Anupam K. Mondal ◽  
Ximena Corso-Diaz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Human Lifespan ◽  
Cellular Events ◽  
Age Related

Multifaceted and divergent manifestations across tissues and cell types have curtailed advances in deciphering the cellular events that accompany advanced age and contribute to morbidities and mortalities. Increase in human lifespan during the past century has heightened awareness of the need to prevent age-associated frailty of neuronal and sensory systems to allow a healthy and productive life. In this review, we discuss molecular and physiological attributes of aging of the retina, with a goal of understanding age-related impairment of visual function. We highlight the epigenome–metabolism nexus and proteostasis as key contributors to retinal aging and discuss lifestyle changes as potential modulators of retinal function. Finally, we deliberate promising intervention strategies for promoting healthy aging of the retina for improved vision. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Best Practices for the Design of Clinical Trials Related to the Visual System

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen G. Maguire
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trial ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Single Patient ◽  
Vision Science

Clinical trials for conditions affecting the visual system need to not only conform to the guidelines for all clinical trials, but also accommodate the possibility of both eyes of a single patient qualifying for the trial. In this review, I present the interplay of the key components in the design of a clinical trial, along with the modifications or options that may be available for trials addressing ocular conditions. Examples drawn from published reports of the design and results of clinical trials of ocular conditions are provided to illustrate application of the design principles. Current approaches to data analysis and reporting of trials are outlined, and the oversight and regulatory procedures to protect participants in clinical trials are discussed. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Coming of Age in Science: Just Look?

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Nakayama
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Common Space ◽  
Field Of Vision ◽  
The Times ◽  
Scientific Environment

With Professor Patrick Cavanagh, I started the Harvard Vision Sciences Laboratory in 1990. Blessed with the largesse of a wealthy university, we occupied a very large common space. Here, students pursued their own projects in a uniquely cooperative and exciting scientific environment. The times were just right in the emerging and expanding field of vision science. With good thesis projects under their belt, most of the students went on to successful careers. However, my own coming of age in science did not have such promising start. It only started well into my thirties when I joined the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco. Providentially, it was there that I had the rare and unique opportunity to work closely and essentially only with peers (not students). Through these intense collaborations, I found my way as a scientist. Most of this account describes these formative years. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Eyewitness Identification Is a Visual Search Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Wixted ◽  
Edward Vul ◽  
Laura Mickes ◽  
Brent M. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Eyewitness Identification ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Identification Procedure ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Target Template ◽  
Police Lineup

The simultaneous six-pack photo lineup is a standard eyewitness identification procedure, consisting of one police suspect plus five physically similar fillers. The photo lineup is either a target-present array (the suspect is guilty) or a target-absent array (the suspect is innocent). The eyewitness is asked to search the six photos in the array with respect to a target template stored in memory (namely, the memory of the perpetrator's face). If the witness determines that the perpetrator is in fact in the lineup (detection), then the next step is to specify the position of the perpetrator's face in the lineup (localization). The witness may also determine that the perpetrator is not present and reject the lineup. In other words, a police lineup is a detection-plus-localization visual search task. Signal detection concepts that have long guided thinking about visual search have recently had a significant impact on our understanding of police lineups. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Generating and Using Transcriptomically Based Retinal Cell Atlases

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karthik Shekhar ◽  
Joshua R. Sanes
Keyword(s):  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Retinal Disease ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Retinal Cell ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Vertebrate Species ◽  
Retinal Cells ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
The Brain

It has been known for over a century that the basic organization of the retina is conserved across vertebrates. It has been equally clear that retinal cells can be classified into numerous types, but only recently have methods been devised to explore this diversity in unbiased, scalable, and comprehensive ways. Advances in high-throughput single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) have played a pivotal role in this effort. In this article, we outline the experimental and computational components of scRNA-seq and review studies that have used them to generate retinal atlases of cell types in several vertebrate species. These atlases have enabled studies of retinal development, responses of retinal cells to injury, expression patterns of genes implicated in retinal disease, and the evolution of cell types. Recently, the inquiry has expanded to include the entire eye and visual centers in the brain. These studies have enhanced our understanding of retinal function and dysfunction and provided tools and insights for exploring neural diversity throughout the brain. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Remembering the Past to See the Future

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole C. Rust ◽  
Stephanie E. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Visual System ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Events ◽  
The Relationship

In addition to the role that our visual system plays in determining what we are seeing right now, visual computations contribute in important ways to predicting what we will see next. While the role of memory in creating future predictions is often overlooked, efficient predictive computation requires the use of information about the past to estimate future events. In this article, we introduce a framework for understanding the relationship between memory and visual prediction and review the two classes of mechanisms that the visual system relies on to create future predictions. We also discuss the principles that define the mapping from predictive computations to predictive mechanisms and how downstream brain areas interpret the predictive signals computed by the visual system. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Balancing Flexibility and Interference in Working Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Buschman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Effective Capacity ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Structured Representations ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Brain

Working memory is central to cognition, flexibly holding the variety of thoughts needed for complex behavior. Yet, despite its importance, working memory has a severely limited capacity, holding only three to four items at once. In this article, I review experimental and computational evidence that the flexibility and limited capacity of working memory reflect the same underlying neural mechanism. I argue that working memory relies on interactions between high-dimensional, integrative representations in the prefrontal cortex and structured representations in the sensory cortex. Together, these interactions allow working memory to flexibly maintain arbitrary representations. However, the distributed nature of working memory comes at the cost of causing interference between items in memory, resulting in a limited capacity. Finally, I discuss several mechanisms used by the brain to reduce interference and maximize the effective capacity of working memory. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Role of the Superior Colliculus in Guiding Movements Not Made by the Eyes

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Cooper ◽  
Robert M. McPeek
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
Arm Reaching ◽  
Species Activity ◽  
Muscle Groups

The superior colliculus (SC) has long been associated with the neural control of eye movements. Over seventy years ago, the orderly topography of saccade vectors and corresponding visual field locations was discovered in the cat SC. Since then, numerous high-impact studies have investigated and manipulated the relationship between visuotopic space and saccade vector across this topography to better understand the physiological underpinnings of the sensorimotor signal transformation. However, less attention has been paid to the other motor responses that may be associated with SC activity, ranging in complexity from concerted movements of skeletomotor muscle groups, such as arm-reaching movements, to behaviors that involve whole-body movement sequences, such as fight-or-flight responses in murine models. This review surveys these more complex movements associated with SC (optic tectum in nonmammalian species) activity and, where possible, provides phylogenetic and ethological perspective. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Binocular Vision and Stereopsis Across the Animal Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny C.A. Read
Keyword(s):  
Binocular Vision ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Human Vision ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Vision Science ◽  
The World ◽  
Vantage Points

Most animals have at least some binocular overlap, i.e., a region of space that is viewed by both eyes. This reduces the overall visual field and raises the problem of combining two views of the world, seen from different vantage points, into a coherent whole. However, binocular vision also offers many potential advantages, including increased ability to see around obstacles and increased contrast sensitivity. One particularly interesting use for binocular vision is comparing information from both eyes to derive information about depth. There are many different ways in which this might be done, but in this review, I refer to them all under the general heading of stereopsis. This review examines the different possible uses of binocular vision and stereopsis and compares what is currently known about the neural basis of stereopsis in different taxa. Studying different animals helps us break free of preconceptions stemming from the way that stereopsis operates in human vision and provides new insights into the different possible forms of stereopsis. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Vision Science, Volume 7 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Temperature Sensation: From Molecular Thermosensors to Neural Circuits and Coding Principles

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Xiao ◽  
X.Z. Shawn Xu
Keyword(s):  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Enzymatic Reactions ◽  
Temperature Changes ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Temperature Sensation ◽  
Sensory Disorders ◽  
Coding Strategies ◽  
And Behavior

Temperature is a universal cue and regulates many essential processes ranging from enzymatic reactions to species migration. Due to the profound impact of temperature on physiology and behavior, animals and humans have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to detect temperature changes. Studies from animal models, such as mouse, Drosophila, and C. elegans, have revealed many exciting principles of thermosensation. For example, conserved molecular thermosensors, including thermosensitive channels and receptors, act as the initial detectors of temperature changes across taxa. Additionally, thermosensory neurons and circuits in different species appear to adopt similar logic to transduce and process temperature information. Here, we present the current understanding of thermosensation at the molecular and cellular levels. We also discuss the fundamental coding strategies of thermosensation at the circuit level. A thorough understanding of thermosensation not only provides key insights into sensory biology but also builds a foundation for developing better treatments for various sensory disorders. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Physiology, Volume 83 is February 10, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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